Android Reigns As King Of The Smartphone Hill

Apple may be the media darling that grabs most of the headlines, but the sprawling monolith that is Android is the phone of the 99 percent. Or at least the 52.5 percent. Android devices garnered the majority of global market share in the third quarter, while the iOS market slipped from 16.6 to 15 percent in that span. Quickly-fading Symbian — the operating system for Nokia phones — plunged to 17 percent from 36.3 percent last year.

In its paywall-blocked November mobile communication devices report, Gartner reports Android has taken over, but an analyst at the company predicts iOS will make a rebound due to a variety of iPhones available at a wide price range.

Windows Phones, meanwhile, are fading in popularity, dropping from a 2.7 percent market share last year to 1.5 percent.